Suing Facebook – Disconnecting Terror

Israeli non-profit – Shurat HaDin – is recruiting the Israeli public to a lawsuit against Facebook for incitement and encouragement of violence against Israelis.

One of the significant characteristics of the current terror wave is the incitement on the social media networks, headed by Facebook.

This is much more than just sharing anti-Israel song lyrics set to Eyal Golan music and anti-Semitic cartoons. This incitement consists of the Facebook pages of many young Palestinians who inflame their friends to embark on terrorist attacks, provocative videos glorifying and encouraging terrorist attacks, instructions for terrorists “How to Carry out a Terrorist Attack” – all on Facebook.

Thus, for example, a short time before yesterday’s combined vehicular stabbing attack, the terrorist announce on Facebook that he intends to carry out an attack. Another terrorist wrote “I want to become a martyr” just before going out to stab Jews. The 19 year old terrorist Mohannad Halabi, published a post on his Facebook page stating that the Third Intifada had erupted and that the current war is for the al-Aqsa Mosque. One day later, Halabi stabbed and murdered Aharon Benita z”l and Rabbi Nehemia Lavi z”l. There are many examples. In general, Facebook is being flooded with many messages in support of terrorists.

In the wake of this terror wave, Israeli NGO Shurat HaDin, which leads the legal battle against terrorism, has commenced an unprecedented proceeding: a class action against the global Facebook website, captioned “Suing Facebook – Cutting off Terrorism”. The organization calls on all Israelis to join this lawsuit which will be conducted against Facebook in the United States.

It is the organization’s intention to obtain an injunction against Facebook to remove these inciting pages, a court order directing Facebook to monitor these methods of incitement and block them and to place the responsibility on Facebook for allowing these terrorists on their network.

“Facebook has the means to research and monitor every word that appears on its website. It cannot be that entire pages on Facebook are devoted to incitement to murder Jews and that terrorists are permitted to publish posts that become popular among their friends and encourage them to kill. It is absurd that Facebook is being transformed into a tool for supporting incitement and attacks against Jews, and we intend to put an end to it,” says Shurat HaDin.

As a first step, Shurat HaDin is creating a special page where Israelis can join this large lawsuit. The lawsuit will be handled by a New York law firm and there is no fee to join. The organization clarifies that the matter has been seriously considered from a legal standpoint.

Shurat HaDin also intends to invite the public to send it as many examples as possible of Facebook incitement for use in this planned class action.

The page created by Shurat HaDin states: “The terrorists do not come on their own. They write posts and encourage their friends to kill Jews. Facebook has been transformed into an anti-Semitic incubator for murder. Join us for the lawsuit against Facebook – that will shut down the inciting pages and stop the terror.”

Israeli attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Director of Shurat HaDin, said that “for every Israeli that is sitting now at home – there is something that can be done against terror. Join us now. This action is important in the same way as actions to increase security on the ground and its goal is to stop the terror. Today, Facebook has become a haven for terrorists: they publish their actions on their Facebook pages, garner support, receive instructions and direction to murder Jews – and all this under the sponsorship of a commercial company that has the power to stop it easily. At the time that Facebook suffices with words and tells us that it intends “to remove inciting pages” – the website is filling up more and more each moment with severe incitement and it is our task to do everything to stop this.”

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About Shurat Hadin

Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center is an Israeli based civil rights organization and world leader in combating the terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them through lawsuits litigated in courtrooms around the world. Fighting for the rights of hundreds of terror victims, Shurat HaDin seeks to bankrupt the terror groups and grind their criminal activities to a halt - one lawsuit at a time